Looking for help with Advanced graphics options for average-low end computer

[ChunkyMonkey]

Hi, I've been really enjoying the game so far. Without spoiling much, I hope, I am at the part where I start reaching scary areas where there are lots of gears moving around.
That is not really important though. More importantly I reached those indoor areas that are very large and have a lot of objects and machines. This is where my computer starts to stutter and performance goes down when I move the camera facing the expanse of the rooms, as opposed to looking at a corner somewhere.

I have a relatively weak PC by today's gaming standards, but it runs some of the most demanding games well when games are set to average settings.
If it helps at all the specs are below:
core 2 quad Q8200 @ 2.33Ghz
8.0 gb ram
64bit system on Vista
GeForce GTS 250

I run the game at 1400 by 900 which is ok, but I could go lower to 720 or so.

What I'd appreciate help with is if someone told me which of the Advanced graphics settings, effects, or features, are likely to be taking up most of the performance. Main priority for me is stable framerate and the higher the better. For example there are three options for filtering, motion blur, bloom, parallax effect, shadows quality, texture quality. Which would you say should slow down the game most? Vertical sync is off. I usually turn it off because I do not care about tearing as much as framerate.

Any hints or advice is appreciated. Thanks.

[Guillaume]

Reflections are usually quite taxing. There is not a lot of occasions in the game where the reflections will contribute much to the beauty or dread of the environment.

You could start by turning off the Reflections. Having it off usually have significant performance results.

If that isn't enough, try lowering the anti-aliasing multiplier or even turning it off. With all the very low color contrast, fog and motion blur, the dented edges of textures won't be as in-your-face as they would otherwise.

The V-sync barely works and there are plenty of screen tearings even with the option on so it's a good thing to have it off. If you really want a good v-sync and know how, force it from your video card settings rather than from the game. Do not lower the resolution below 1400x900, its somewhat pointless.

The textures are muddy to begin with so you really don't want to lower the texture quality, put it the maximum. You might want to keep the shadow quality, motion blur, texture filtering, bloom, shaders and other post-processing effects as high as possible since they have very significant impact on how the game looks.

The game has some optimization issues, or maybe the graphical engine is poorly optimized to begin with, it takes more resources from your machine than the look of the game warrant. Whenever a big event occurs and the game requires a live loading rather than a loading screen, it caused me frame rate issues. I don't know if there are good ways around it without sacrificing too much the look of the game.

[Guillaume]

Found something else that might help. Scroll down and check the "Issues fixed" section of the wiki page. There is an entry concerning freezes and lag. Do the fixes that they recommend, hopefully it'll improve your performance.

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Amnesia:_A_Machine_for_Pigs

[ChunkyMonkey]

Thanks! The things you wrote in the first reply I've already turned off. I will check the "issues fixed" section. Then if things get better I'll reply here again.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Oddbot:

Found something else that might help. Scroll down and check the "Issues fixed" section of the wiki page. There is an entry concerning freezes and lag. Do the fixes that they recommend, hopefully it'll improve your performance.

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Amnesia:_A_Machine_for_Pigs